


Unexpected meeting

by SuYeon



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: F/M, First Meetings, One Shot, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 23:31:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11218512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuYeon/pseuds/SuYeon
Summary: (Reader-Insert) fem!Reader & Ren Hakuyuu.Reader visits the market and finds Hakuryuu in an alley. Together with the young and hurt boy Reader searches for his older brother.





	Unexpected meeting

Walking down the marketplace became a habit due to your job, so even on your free days you visited the loud and crowded place. Not that you liked this kind of places, but somehow your feet automatically led you there as soon as you left your home. Another reason was probably the fact that you barely had any chance to get anywhere without crossing the marketplace, at least not if you wanted to avoid long detours. Today, as an exception, you also wanted to buy some fruits. A friend of yours, who worked for a fruiterer, had told you about their new assortment and you wanted to check it out. Maybe you could use some of the fruits for creating new receipts. Your boss always wanted to be different from the other bars, however he was nothing but talk. Only thanks to you and your colleagues your working place got famous. Being famous in town caused a lot of income, the downside was the heavy workload. Working overtime was no exceptional case anymore and it wouldn’t really bother you, if your boss wouldn’t take it for granted. 

When you looked at the smiling faces of the other people you could not believe that you lived in a time of war – a war, which was fought outside of the capital and silently took its toll. Your older brother had been one of the many silent victims of the war. How many of those people around you also had lost a family member because of the war? On the other hand, who were you to complain or judge the government? Who knew what was going on behind the curtains? You did not knew. All you could do was to take care of your father – your mother had died after a long illness. Your father had once been a solider, but after an injury he could not carry out his duty any longer and now worked on his little farm, which provided enough food for you and him, but it wasn’t enough to make money with it. Earning money was your duty. One you fulfilled with a smile and you knew your father was proud of you and your achievements. However, you could see the small glim of disappointment in his eyes, whenever he talked about the women of the neighborhood, who were married or would soon be wed. You were old enough for marriage and most of your friends and colleagues were already married. Was there something wrong with you? A good question, yet with no answer. You looked like most of your peers, no special hair or eye color, no scars or marks, no unusual hobbies or skills – well, you were better educated than most of your peers, because of your father’s former occupation. And it wasn’t like no man had ever shown interest in you. More than once you had heard men talking about you, even some of your colleagues ask, whether you were still free, yet no one had ever came to you or your father and asked for your hand in marriage. Some may be scared away because you were so “old” and still free, so they thought there had to be something wrong with you. There was nothing wrong with you at all. So it was a bit odd that you were still single, but all in all, you didn’t mind still being single, although you wished you would find someone for the future. The best was a man you loved and who loved you back, but you knew that everything had its price. If your father found a man for you, you would accept the man without complaining. This was how this world worked and as long as you weren’t treated badly – you trusted your father to only let a reputable man became your husband – there was no reason to complain. Life wasn’t always a bowl of cherries. However, you decided to enjoy the bowl of cherries as long as you could. 

After you visited your friend’s shop, you wanted to go home again, because you had promised your father to help him with harvesting. Though your plan was interrupted when you heard a faint sobbing. At first you thought you just had misheard, which wouldn’t be surprising. The marketplace was noisy, so it was easy to hear things and misinterpret them. To make sure you were not just hearing things, just stood still for a moment and concentrated on the sobbing. It was really faint, but it was definitely there. Without a second thought you followed the sound into a small alley, where you found a crying child. Slowly you approached the young boy. Despite liking children, you always had problems with interacting with them.   
“Hello”, you tried to get the boy’s attention, which you got.   
The boy winced, when he heard you, but he looked in your direction and stopped sobbing for a second before more tears streamed down his face. His eyes were red due to all the crying. What now? When you took a closer look, you saw that he was injured – an abrasion on his left knee. Poor child, it must be in pain. Unfortunately, you had nothing with you to take care of the injury.   
You tried to approach the boy again. With a soft voice you told him your name and asked him, what his name was and what had happened. Due to his clothes you assumed he was from a noble family. His parents may have put on some not so fancy clothes, but it was still obvious that he was from a noble upbringing. Not that you cared much about it. He was a child, who needed help and you would help him. You crouched down to be on eye level with the crying boy, who was sitting on a wooden box.   
“Ha… Ha... Haku… Hakuryuu”, the boy answered between his sobbing.   
“Hello, Hakuryuu. You do not have to be afraid of me. I want to help you. Do you know where your parents are?”, you asked.  
“They are at home. I came here with my brother, but I lost him somewhere and then I felt and it hurts.”  
Tenderly you stoke Hakuryuu’s head.  
“How about we search for your bother together? I am sure he is searching for you and he is probably extremely worried. Sitting in a dark alley is not really useful or save.”  
You had nothing with you to lessen the pain in Hakuryuu’s knee, but maybe he would forget the pain, when he was focusing on something else like searching for his older brother. Just sitting around would do no good.   
“Al… Alright”, Hakuryuu agreed and reached his arms out to you.  
“Alright, then let’s search for your brother. Do you remember where you have seen him the last time?”  
Together with the boy on your arm, you left the alley. Your father had to wait a bit longer for you, but you were sure he would understand, when you explained the situation to him later on. Who would leave a small child, who needed help, alone? You would not! Never!   
In the past you had gotten lost once as well, when you went to the marketplace with your older brother. Thanks to an older lady you were able to find your brother again, but the time without him were horrible. Although you knew the town very well, you had been scared. For a child, who was from a different part of the town or maybe even from a different part of the empire, the situation must be so much worse.

Finding the young boy’s brother was no easy task. Hakuryuu had probably searched for his brother without paying much attention to his surrounding and therefore didn’t knew where he had come from or which ways he had used. Along his way he had fallen down and with tears clouding his eyes it had been even harder to see something and to remember what was seen.   
“Say, Hakuryuu, did you and your brother had a specific destination?”, you asked.  
“No. I wanted to go to the market, because I’ve never been there and brother Yuu finally said yes. Now he probably will never came here again with me, because I didn’t stay at his side.”   
Before Hakuryuu could start crying again you smiled at him and reassured him that his brother would surely go to the market with him again. Hopefully, it was true.   
“You said, you were with your brother at a jeweler the last time you saw him. Can you remember anything else?”  
There weren’t many jeweler, but it wasn’t like there was only one either.   
“Ahem, it smelled like fish.”  
Fish, alright! So you had to go to the fish market or at least go near it. As far as you knew there was actually just one jeweler, but it was a long way. Unbelievable how far the boy had gone in his search for his brother. How high were the chances to find one person in such a crowded place? Very low.  
It took hours until Hakuryuu finally shouted an excited: “Brother Yuu!”  
Seemingly you two had found your target. A young man, who looked a lot like the boy in your arms, reacted to the shout and came in your direction. He was pretty handsome, but this was an unimportant fact. You were just happy to have finally found the other one, who was happy that he had found his little brother as well.   
Hakuryuu had started to cry again. This time because he was so happy to be with his brother again. Since you didn’t want Hakuryuu to get lost again you didn’t put him down on the ground until his brother reached you. Passing the child to his brother was awkward. Body contact with strangers was nothing you were afraid of – not something you enjoyed, but you could handle it very well. However, the feeling when Yuu touched you just for a mere second was one you never felt before. You lacked the words to describe what you felt. The feeling of his touch lingered a little bit too long on your skin. He smelt nice, another irrelevant fact you noticed.   
The two brothers cuddled a bit and Hakuryuu told his story, how he got lost and hurt and how you had found and helped him – it was hard to understand, what he was saying, because of all his sobbing, yet it was so cute to see and listen to. All you could do was to smile at the two brothers. Hakuryuu’s brother did not seem to be angry at all. Of course he scolded the boy, but one could see how worried he had been and how happy he was to have his little brother back in his arms. Having a family that cared for you, was something great. Suddenly you remembered your father. He was probably worried about you right now. The search had taken longer than expected, so you excused yourself. There was nothing for you to do here anyway.   
“Thank you for helping me!”, Hakuryuu said with a big smile on his face.   
“No problem. But next time you really stay at your brother’s side! The marketplace can be really dangerous for a child.”  
“I promise!”  
“And I promise to take better care of my little brother. If I had watched after him properly, he hadn’t got lost in the first place”, Yuu said with in a firm voice and such a serious face, which almost made you laugh. He seemed like a really nice guy, who cared deeply about the well-being of his younger sibling.

Without more words the two brothers turned around and where about to leave the market. However, just after a few steps and before you could turn around as well and return home, the man, whose name you still didn’t know, turned around: “I am sorry, where are my manners? My name is Ren Hakuyuu. May I ask for your name?”


End file.
